


A Lesson In Crime

by Virtualnepha



Category: All Time Low
Genre: Autism, Crimes & Criminals, Disability, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Teacher-Student Relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-07
Updated: 2016-10-06
Packaged: 2018-08-20 00:08:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8229454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Virtualnepha/pseuds/Virtualnepha
Summary: In which Jack Barakats teachers assistant may be able to do more for him than help him read.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Another slightly dark and weird lengthy fic cause apparently that's all I can write. P.s I'm Forrestkline I just wanna move my fics over to this account so I'm not associated with all the bad Frerard I didn't finish when I was like 16 so..
> 
> Also the first chapter might be a little wonky. I originally had Jack as the teacher but I switched the roles so if there are any inconsistencies, that's why. Unbetad!

"Rian Dawson" Alex called, exhausted and only minimally aided by the doubled amount of caffeine he added to his morning coffee that day.

"Here" A young man with a mop of hair called back. He'd grow out of that haircut hopefully, Alex thought as he held back a giggle. He had no room to speak, though, sporting his own mop of hair straightened excessively.

"Zack Merrick"

"Here" This one was kind of buff. Looked the kind of guy he expected to beat up underclassmen during passing periods, but at the same time kinda didn't - multi coloured heart stickers littered all over his binder. On second thought, he just looked like a surfer. Alex didn't know why he liked to figure these kinds of things out.

"Jordan Fish"

"Here" a weak voice spoke up from the back of the class. Alex wouldn't embarass him by pretending not to hear. They were just lucky it was _him_ teaching today, and not Mr. Ross.

Ryan was a dick, plain and simple. But he was doing Alex a massive favor, and he wasn't a dick to _him_ , so it didn't matter all that much.

He continued to go down the line of names of students, randomly - not by alphabet, so no one could guess who they were sitting by beforehand. As requested. Another example of Ryan being a dick, Alex thought.

He finally got to the last - that should have been the first - name to call.

"Jack Barakat" He called, not looking up from the sheet.

Silence.

He looked up then, scanning the room briefly.

"Jack Barakat?"

Still no reply. He just furrowed his eyebrows, seeing for himself that every seat was full. There was no way anyone was absent. He sighed to himself, not a class clown already. He didn't get paid enough for this! Or, at all, anyway.

"He's right there", someone spoke up finally. Zack, he thinks it was. Alex's eyes met with who he was referring to.

To put it nicely, he looked scared. Maybe like he was having an asthma attack, hands visibly shaking and mouth parted slightly like he was trying to get in any breath of air he could.

"Are you okay?"

That seemed to make it even worse, Jack's eyebrows furrowing closer together.

"He's not going to talk, sir." Zack answered again.

"Oh," Alex said. Briefly remembering Ryan saying something about a mute student now.

"That's fine, Jack" Alex said, and thankfully he visibly relaxed. Alex smiled at him reassuringly and tried not to worry much about the fact that Jack just redirected his gaze down to his not-so-interesting advanced English book.

"Okay" Alex said, looking back to the class. "Now that you've all been introduced to me, kind of- I'll introduce myself to you. My name is Alex-"

"Alex?" Someone interrupted. A girl with long curly brown hair and a nose ring. Tay, he thinks. "I thought this was Mr. Ross' class?"

Alex smiled again, trying to will down the anoyed feeling bubbling in his stomach from being cut off.

"Yeah, it is. But he didn't want to come in today and I'm his teachers assistant."

"A student assistant?" A boy named Christopher asked from the back of the room.

"Yes and no," Alex said. "I just graduated. Not from this school, but a private school not so far away"

"Oo, fancy" the boy teased. Alex just tried to laugh back.

"Yeah" he agreed. "English is my forte Ryan and I have a deal. I essentially teach his class for him, you all do good, he writes me a badass recommendation letter and bam! I'm teaching it at Stanford."

Tay spoke up again.

"You have connections to Stanford?"

"Ryan went to Stanford" Alex said. "He grew up in Vegas, studied in Stanford and came here."

"Why here?" Rian asked.

"Reasons"

"Reasons?"

"I'll tell you when we're all friends" Alex grinned. "And you will pass this class, do you know why? Because my ass depends on it."

On that note, Alex looked up at the clock in awe. 25 mibutes left of a 45 minute class. It took that long for role? He'd ask Ryan about a sign in sheet for the future.

"Okay" Alex said, defeated. "Well there's only 20 minutes left and I was thinking about jumping right into Shakespeare, so you can just fuck around for the rest of the period."

The class erupted into chatter immediately- Zack and Rian pushing their desks together, a small group of girls huddling around to talk about who knows what in the back, Tay playing with a girl named Hayley's hair and a boy heavily tattooed for his age making moon eyes at Jordan Fish.

Jack sat alone, putting his head in his arms and not pulling his head up even when the bell rang for the end of the period.

Alex didn't attempt to wake him up until well after every student had left the room. No point, anyway. This was his lunch period. But, shit, he didn't even know if Jack had the same one!

He walked over to him carefully, sitting in the desk next to him.

Just the faintest whisper of "Jack" from Alex had him jumping up abruptly and just as quickly fleeing the room, almost tripping many times as he went.

And jeez, Alex thought. Was it something he said?

-

His lunch went okay. He scarfed it down quickly, done long before MCR started blaring from his phone.

He picked it up and answered immediately, already knowing who that ringtone was assigned to.

"What do you want, Ryan?" Alex joked.

"A dog, Brendon to stop being a dickhead, and a favor from you"

Alex sighed and laughed at the same time.

"You have a dog, I highly doubt Brendon is the one being the dick and what favor?"

"You're right he's not, you're right I do, and for you to take over Mrs. Grace's special Ed class for next period"

Alex almost spat out the apple juice he just remembered he could be chugging down.

"What? What about 4th period English and am I even qualified to be an assistant teacher for special Ed students?"

"You had a free 4th period I forgot to tell you about and no but there's no other choice. It's a one on one class anyway, some students with some disabilities require counselors to talk to once a day. He was actually in your third period! His file is in the 2nd drawer of the desk."

Alex knew who he was talking about before he even opened it.

'Jack Barakat: Aspergers, ADD, Psychotic depression, PTSD, Anxiety disorder.

Very shy, selective mute, does not like group work or the colour red.'

There was a lot more that Alex didn't read, in awe that Ryan was springing this on him knowing there was no way he was qualified for this.

"Ryan you've gotta find someone else, man"

"Does Stanford need to find another English professor?"

Alex groaned.

"Okay, Ryan. Where do I go?"

"You don't go anywhere, it's your free period so he'll be coming to you."

"Does he know that?"

"Yes"

"Then why didn't he just stay in-"

"Because he's afraid of you, Alex." Ryan said, a little annoyed that it was taking so long to relay this information to Alex when he had a date in about 30 minutes.

Alex nodded to no one.

"Okay" he said, determined. "I'll take care of it."

"Thanks Alex" Ryan said, lacking basic manners and hanging up before Alex could assure him he wasn't welcome.

He drank the rest of his juice and tapped his foot idly until the bell rang again.

-

Jack came in very slowly. He peeked his head around the corner first, Alex was sucking down a capri sun as he seemingly surveyed the room.

"Hey, Jack" Alex greeted in a way he hoped was warm. "I'm supposed to be your counselor for this period. Are you okay with that?"

Jack shrugged, looking nervous and put out. Alex read the rest of his file while he waited for lunch to be over, not all of it yet - just enough to not take this personally.

By the time Jack finally sat down in the chair Alex had positioned at the other side of Ryan's desk, he had finished another juice box.

"So" Alex said, clapping his hands together once in a way that made Jack jump almost an inch up. He apologised immediately, which made Jack blush a deep red and it didn't help that Alex thought that was maybe the cutest thing he'd seen all year.

One of the objectives was to get Jack to talk. Alex intended to do just that.

"So" he started again, no clapping this time. "Do you wanna talk...like, out loud?"

Jack shook his head quickly.

Alright, Alex thought. Objective number two, then. Getting Jack to tell him something about himself.

"Okay then, Jack." Alex agreed. "You don't have to talk, or - do anything you don't want to here, okay?"

Jack nodded slowly, the beginnings of a faint smile tugging at his lips. That was at least something, Alex thought. He pulled a notepad out of the desk.

He scribbled down words as neatly as he could, switching to the other hand to write with when the familiar sharp pain went through his write hand. Perks of being ambidextrous.

He pushed the notepad and pen to Jack when he was done, smiling to himself since the student was still reading.

**We can communicate this way, if that's easier and more comfortable for you. Writing that is.**

He read quickly. There wasn't much to read, this time, but he read quickly. English wasn't his best subject, not by far. It was the only general class he was in.

Jack smiled, genuinely. Alex didn't know what the swooping feeling in his stomach was. Couldn't put his finger on it.

**Thank you.** The note said simply.

Jack and Alex hit it off immediately, Alex actually pulling a laugh from him once or twice as they talked about bands, superheroes, astrology, etc. In other words They were both a little startled when the bell rang, Jack moving to leave immediately.

"Wait" Alex said softly, quickly learning how little Jack liked loud outbursts. "Want a juice to take with you?"

Jack took Alex's last Capri sun with a smile, waving at him shyly as he left for his 5th period.

Alex figured this was pretty okay for the first day.


End file.
